Aspire scorecard: $1.39 billion raised

About $1.39 billion down, another $360 million to go. That’s the update from University officials on the five-year Aspire campaign, which runs through June 2012. Annual Giving chairman R. Kelly Doherty ’81 told the Alumni Day luncheon that the total to date “is a jaw-dropping accomplishment, given the economic climate, and it bodes well.”

Doherty highlighted the 60.8 percent participation rate in Annual Giving last year, the highest level in a decade. Other Ivy schools have been experiencing “a slow, steady decline in alumni participation,” he said.

At the Feb. 14 meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), President Tilghman termed the results “extraordinary” in light of the economic downturn. Completing the campaign is “going to be really challenging,” she said.